Knopf to publish new book by Bill Clinton this November

Former President Bill Clinton has written a new book about America’s future that will be published by Knopf in November

NEW YORK, September 22, 2011 –Former President Bill Clinton has written a new book on the urgent challenges facing the United States and offering a plan to get America “back into the future business.” BACK TO WORK will be published in November by Alfred A. Knopf. The announcement was made today by Sonny Mehta, Knopf’s Chairman and Editor in Chief. Mr. Mehta acquired world publishing rights to the book from Robert B. Barnett of Williams & Connolly in Washington, D.C., who represented Mr. Clinton in the negotiations. The terms of the agreement are not being disclosed.

“I wrote this book because I love my country and I’m concerned about our future,” writes Clinton. “As I often said when I first ran for President in 1992, America at its core is an idea — the idea that no matter who you are or where you’re from, if you work hard and play by the rules, you’ll have the freedom and opportunity to pursue your own dreams and leave your kids a country where they can chase theirs.”

In BACK TO WORK, Clinton details how we can get out of the current economic crisis and lay a foundation for long-term prosperity. He offers specific recommendations on how we can put people back to work, increase bank lending and corporate investment, double our exports, restore our manufacturing base, and create new businesses. He supports President Obama’s emphasis on green technology, saying that change in the way we produce and consume energy is the strategy most likely to spark a fast growing economy and enhance our national security.

Clinton also says that we need both a strong economy and a smart government working together to restore prosperity and progress. He demonstrates that whenever we’ve given into the temptation to blame government for our problems, we’ve lost our commitment to shared prosperity, balanced growth, financial responsibility, and investment in the future. That has led our nation into trouble because there are some things we have to do together. For example, he says, “Our ability to compete in the twenty-first century is dependent on our willingness to invest in infrastructure: we need faster broadband, a state-of-the-art national electrical grid, modernized water and sewer systems, and the best airports, trains, roads, and bridges.

“There is no evidence that we can succeed in the twenty-first century with an antigovernment strategy,” writes Clinton, “with a philosophy grounded in ‘You’re on your own’ rather than ‘We’re all in this together.’” Clinton believes that conflict between government and the private sector has proved to be remarkably good politics, but it has produced bad policies, giving us a weak economy with few jobs, growing income inequality and poverty, and a decline in our competitive position. In the real world, cooperation works much better than conflict, and “we need victories in the real world.”